A surprise and unlisted witness has emerged seeking to give evidence in the defamation action launched by Lachlan Murdoch against online news site Crikey.

The witness, known only as Dictator Dan, appeared outside the Federal Court in Sydney where Murdoch’s action against Private Media, the company that owns Crikey, is being heard. (main picture)

Mr Dan, who claimed he lived in Melbourne, said he had “jumped on a plane and headed for Sydney quick smart” after hearing news reports that Mr Murdoch had alleged Crikey had been “directing ridicule and hatred” towards him.

“I’m here now and I’m more than ready and willing to give evidence in this case in defence of Crikey,” Mr Dan said.

“I don’t want to sound immodest, but I reckon if anyone has experience in having hatred and ridicule directed at them in recent times, it’s me.”

A spokesperson for Crikey’s legal team said their client was “very interested” in speaking with Mr Dan with a view to adding him to their witness list.

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CANBERRA: Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has called on Foreign Minister Penny Wong to resign over an “unforgivable lapse of judgment and commonsense” in an overnight social media post.

“Ms Wong has shown she is not fit to hold a senior ministerial post, Mr Dutton said of Ms Wong’s use of both the dollar sign and the word dollar in a tweet posted overnight (pictured).

“Look, you’d expect the brain-dead morons who infect the putrid, festering sewer known as Twitter to get things like that so egregiously wrong but not a very senior minister in the short-lived and disappointing Albanese government.”

Mr Dutton said he would have liked to have said more on the issue but apologised, saying he had to rush out to an ATM machine to get some cash to buy some RAT tests for his family.

“I just hope I remember my PIN number,” he said.

An endless number of mainstream media politics writers contacted by The Bug this morning have stressed that if Ms Wong had made that gaffe at the start of an election campaign, it would surely have led to the defeat of the short-term and very disappointing Albanese government.

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Mr Dutton said Ms Wong’s blunder was just another in “a long list of failures” by the Albanese Government.

“I said the Albanese Government would fail, and it has, beyond doubt,” Mr Dutton said.

“Perhaps the most tragic failure so far has been the Albanese Government abject failure to prevent mass whale beachings of the type we’ve seen this seek in Tasmania.

“The blood of more than 200 whales is on Anthony Albanese’s hands. He said he’d stop these sort of incidents and he hasn’t.”

When reporters said they could not recall Mr Albanese making such a commitment, Mr Dutton was unrepentant.

“My point entirely. It’s typical of Mr Albanese and Labor that they make these promises in secret so that they can’t be held to account,” he said.